Vrai
by Java Trinomial
Summary: Of evangelism on Boston, and the removal of a mask long held.


~note: This deals with Christianity, but also with two authors in the Bible section. Part of this, therefore, new people won't understand. And be forwarned: you try to convert me, and not only will that fail, but I will be *very* *dissapointed* and you don't like either of us dissapointed.  
  
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-Vrai-  
  
Joking with a friend at a T stop,  
then watching puzzled as a man passed up by,  
going on both escalators, leaving slips of paper  
before leaving on the train he came in on.  
  
I went and looked.  
  
Pamphlets, all of them.  
With their only reference the Bible  
and poor writing style for persuasion.  
  
So I went up and down the escalators  
and picked each one up,  
and now they reside in my trash can.  
  
People say they're ways to witness.  
I say they're cheap ways out.  
Can you ask a pamphlet questions  
about error, inconsistency, all that?  
  
If you want them to join your religion,  
and make a personal relationship with your God,  
at least make a relationship with them first!  
  
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bitter cold, flowing mob  
on the day we wear masks  
openly for once.  
such a pretty pretty sight  
laughter and joking and fright  
this is salem, and we  
are the irreverent.  
  
and then as we continued   
we saw the witch killers.  
  
tall signs with scare tactics  
dripping all over  
and many people chanting hell  
and offering redemption only  
in their leaden thought chains.  
  
i stood quietly in my costume,  
voodoo priestess, watching the arrogance.  
and when one looked at me  
to offer their zeal and religion  
the same kind as brough the trials,  
and lead so many to writhe from the  
branches of a tree  
(and one to die under a hill of stone)  
i turned and muttered "murderers."  
  
there were others, challenging,  
declaring openly their heathen ways  
and speaking their minds.  
but i walked away.  
who am i to tell them of their god?  
if they can blind themselfves to his orders  
of rape murder genocide  
how could I restore their sight?  
I am but a quiet asian girl.  
  
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There was a nice man at a street corner  
near my college, fat jovial man  
in a straw hat. He was offering just  
green-covered New Testaments, a Gideon.  
  
Not demanding, not cursing,  
just holdng a book out for any to take.  
I conversed with him for a while on   
different Bible translations,  
and ended up with a green cover myself.  
  
I looked through it and then put it on my desk,   
where it sat before Jon threw it away.  
  
---------------------------------------------  
  
this intersection irks me.  
whiny activists, take a pamphlet,  
so right in our arrogance.  
  
and now, again, what do we see?  
  
there's a big board on a stand  
and it has a crisp new twenty.  
the board says you can win it  
if you can pass the test.  
  
now, this is interesting.  
  
but as i listen i know them.  
"what if i could prove evolution wrong?"  
and then i find one  
and stand in front of him,  
innocent me, and ask what the dare is.  
  
"Have you ever lied?"  
yes.  
"Have you ever stolen?"  
my mind equivocates, but I say yes.  
"have you ever disobeyed your parents?"  
  
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And this is where I laugh.  
Not because of the utter stupidity of that question  
as posed to a teenager,  
but because I know exactly where this is going.  
And I wonder --   
if I had said no to the two above and yes to the third,  
and told him my parents beat and abused me,  
would I still be in the place he claimed?  
  
--------------------------------------------  
  
yes.  
he starts talking about how we have all  
broken "god's" word, and i interrupt him there  
  
"...and therefore we are unworthy to be in the  
sight of god because we have sinned and only  
accepting jesus of nazareth as my personal savior   
will get me into heaven?"  
  
he blinks  
stutters  
i don't think he's seen an intelligent one all day.  
and he manages to croak,  
"That's a gross oversimplification..."  
"but it's true, isn't it?"  
  
---------------------------------------------  
  
"Well, you see I'm busy, so I should go home now."  
Our poor bewildered evangelist manages to ask me  
what faith background I am from.  
I turn back, close my eyes, smile, raise a finger to my eye,  
and say cheerfully,  
"Atheist!" in as Xelloss-esque a voice I can.  
  
---------------------------------------------  
  
Do you know, the Christians gave us a fish?  
it died.  
At Welcome Night, they gave out free goldfish.  
half-dead fish. both died within a week.  
Orange and Cream, we called them, for the colors.  
it was a plot to make us consider our own mortality.  
I cried. I like fishies.  
also likes sushi, don't tell anyone.  
  
So have you figured it out yet?  
Java, the Rose Bride Striving to Be a Prince.  
What is the opposite? A Rose Bride content to be a Bride,  
sneering at the people, living in quiet despair.  
Anthy. Anshii. Japanese syllabary.  
Hasn't anyone figured out who I am?  
who i am? 


End file.
